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Autograph draft of the Fantasiestücke (Fantasy Pieces) for piano, op.12, comprising ʻAufschwung' ('Soaring') in F minor, 'Warum?' ('Why?') in D flat major, 'Grillen' ('Whims') in D flat major, 'In der Nacht' ('In the Night') in F minor, ʻTraumes Wirren' ('Dream's Confusions') in F major and ʻEnde vom Lied' ('End of the Song') in F major; plus the untitled piece (ʻXXX') in F minor, often referred to as the Appendix, which was dropped from the collection at proof stage; together with title-page and dedication ("Phantasiestücke/ Phantastische Geschichten [deleted]/ für Pianoforte/ Miss Rovena [sic] Anna Laidlav [sic]/ zugeeignet/ von/ Robert Schumann// Op. 15 [deleted] 12"), with a draft list of contents in two books underneath; plus Schumann's list of possible opus-numbers for this and other works (in the left-hand margin); his presentation inscription to Mendelssohn's Leipzig pupil Gustav Schmidt ("Herrn Gustav Schmidt/ zum Andenken von/ Robert Schumann/ Lpz, an/ 7 August 37") added below; further drafts for the putative sequence of the pieces, as well as notes of publication costings, contained within the manuscript, and marked up throughout with autograph instructions of memoranda regarding repeats, some at a higher octave, inserts (indicated by Schumann with a sequence of letters from "A" to "F", and "a" to "f"), tempo indications and suchlike; many pages additionally marked-up by Schumann in his characteristic red crayon; unbound in late nineteenth or early twentieth-century cloth-backed portfolio, 14 pages in all on 7 leaves, comprising one bifolium (making up the upper and lower wrappers) and five loose leaves, each page ruled with ten staves (in five systems), on thick absorbent laid paper, dust-staining and light spotting to outer pages with some wear where folded (A recto and G verso), title-page creased at right-hand side (A recto), inner pages (A verso to G recto) with some minor browning at edges but overall in attractive and fresh condition, oblong folio (each leaf c.290 x 340mm.), Leipzig, completed 8 July and presented on 7 August 1837

Footnotes

This famous cycle of piano pieces occupies 'a pivotal position in Schumann's output' and inaugurated 'the masterful series of poetic cycles that would occupy him until the end of the decade' (Daverio, Grove and Schumann, p.156). During his enforced separation from Clara Wieck in the summer of 1837, Schumann had taken up with the young British pianist Robena Ann Laidlaw, then staying at Leipzig. It was thanks to her that he turned again to composition after several months of inactivity: 'The first of his cycles to draw on the world of E.T.A. Hoffmann (the title comes from the poet's Fantasiestücke in Callots Manier), it inaugurates a shift in emphasis from larger to smaller forms. At the same time, the work differs in important respects from Schumann's earlier cycles of poetic miniatures, given the tendency of its individual pieces towards greater breadth and structural self-sufficiency, and their regular alternation between Eusebian introspection and Florestanian impulsiveness' (Daverio, Grove).

The Fantasiestücke op.12In sending Louis Spohr the newly-published Fantasiestücke, and Davidsbündlertänze, Schumann told his fellow composer: "I may well have written more difficult and extensive works, but nothing... that would so easily flow from my heart as these little pieces. This is why I am presenting them to you. Perhaps you could tell me whether these pieces might find the way to other peoples' hearts, the path that they so longingly seek, and whether I might have any prospects of accomplishing something that, without my blushing too much, could be presented before expert eyes such as yours, an ambition that I so fervently pursue as I learn and live in the arts"; causing Spohr to write in turn to Schumann's friend Henriette Voigt: "We, too, are looking forward to meeting Herr Schumann; we are very fond of some of his compositions, particularly the Phantasiestücke" (letters of 9 February 1838 and 22 April 1838, quoted by Draheim). That May, Liszt told Schumann: 'The Carnaval and Fantasy Pieces have captured my interest in an extraordinary way. I play them truly with delight, and Lord knows there are not many things of which I can say the same' (Herttrich, p.vi).

The Fantasiestücke retains its influence among composers to this day, as, to take a specific example, with György Kurtág's Hommage à R. Sch. (Hiekel, p.258). Indeed, the shortest piece in the cycle, 'Warum?' (in our manuscript originally titled "Frage") has been singled out as having particular resonance for our times: 'poetry exists in a perpetual "state of becoming": it is work in progress. The implication is not that Schumann's "fragmentary" piano pieces should be thought incomplete: a piece such as "Warum?" from the Fantasiestücke remains, in Vladimir Jankélévitch's words, "eternally suspended... forever interrogative", never expecting a musical answer. The fragment's challenge is one of interpretation; listeners are left to make their own connections and conclusions about meaning' (Tunbridge, p.94). (In one of the several draft listings in our manuscript, 'Warum?' stands as the penultimate piece.)

Extant ManuscriptsThree other substantive manuscript sources for the work are known. Two are autographs of the first piece in the collection, 'Des Abends', one of the two pieces absent from our manuscript (although both are included in the several drafts of contents contained in our manuscript). Both of these scores of 'Des Abends' are largely identical to that of the final version (Herttrich, p.42). The first was sold at Sotheby's, London, 10 June 2009, lot 109. It is similar in layout to our manuscript (as for example in Schumann's use of red crayon for numbering the title in Roman numerals) and is dated 4 July, four days before ours was signed off. It was presented by Schumann to Ernst Sperling, a composer of lieder, on 29 July; whereas ours was presented to Gustav Schmidt on 7 August. On the reverse is a piece identified in the Sotheby's catalogue as 'Lied ohne Ende' [i.e. 'Leid ohne Ende'], which seems to have been originally intended for inclusion in the Fantasiestücke, although it was not published until 1853 (Grove and Herttrich, p.vi). The second autograph of 'Des Abends' is in the Pierpont Morgan Library, New York; and was inscribed by both Clara Wieck and Schumann to their friend Ernst Adolph Bekker on 18 August 1837.

The third substantive source, and the only one that overlaps with ours, is the scribal and partly autograph engraver's copy, or Stichvorlage, held in a private collection, Basel (MacAuslan, p.122, fn.53, and Herttrich, p.42). It was sent to the publishers Breitkopf & Härtel on 7 August; the selfsame day that Schumann gave our manuscript to Schmidt. It has three pieces in Schumann's hand, 'In der Nacht', 'Fabel' and the rejected Appendix ʻXXX'; plus supplementary pages added to ʻAufschwung'. In compiling our manuscript, Schumann clearly also had publication in mind and may indeed at one point have intended it to be used as engraver's copy: on the second page of the second draft on 'In der Nacht', he gives the instruction that a passage should be repeated in the engraving. There is, in addition, a scribal fair copy of the Stichvorlage, prepared by the publishers, in the Heinrich Heine Institute, Düsseldorf (Herttrich, p.42). (McCorkle also lists a sketch for the incipit of ʻTraumes Wirren' in Schumann's Studienbuch II held by the Universitätsbibliothek, Bonn; for further details of which see below.)

Contents of the Schmidt ManuscriptOur manuscript contains six of the eight published pieces, plus the piece (Appendix ʻXXX') that was dropped at proof stage. No less than four pages are devoted to the fifth piece, 'In der Nacht', including what appear to be some of his first thoughts for the work (see description below). This was to become both the longest of the pieces, and Schumann's favourite; and is generally regarded as lying at the heart of the cycle. It is the subject of a famous letter Schumann wrote Clara the following year: 'After I had finished it I found, to my delight, that it contained the story of Hero and Leander... how Leander swam every night through the sea to his love, who awaited him at the beacon with a torch to light the way. When I am playing In der Nacht I cannot get the idea out of my head. First he throws himself into the sea; she calls him, he replies; he fights his way through the waves, reaching land safely. Then the cantilena, when they are clasped in each other's embrace, until they must part again. He cannot tear himself away, then night envelops everything in darkness again' (letter 21 April 1838).

Our first draft sets down what must have been some of Schumann's earliest ideas for the piece; while the second draft repeats and clarifies the first; with further material added at proof stage. In McAuslan's analysis: 'as [Schumann] prepared the Fantasiestücke for publication, he apparently lengthened and complicated several of its pieces. The earlier versions convey more simply the image or idea suggested in each title, while in the final version each piece is more expansive (generally three or four times longer than most of Carnaval's pieces), does more to develop an image or idea in its own way, and has a more complex form: a listener can 'spread out comfortably' in a steadier musical flow. Again, while in the final version most pieces are self-contained, it seems that in earlier versions most of the first six pieces would have flowed into one another in continuing sequence rather than being detachable units, and only the last two pieces had contrastingly assertive conclusions. The earlier version, then, would have been almost as fleeting, centrifugal and bewildering as Carnaval' (pp.127-8); 'The original "Aufschwung", it appears, was only about 47 bars long; to "In der Nacht", Schumann added bars 45-67 and 108-121, and perhaps 93-107, 122-137 and 144-60; to "Traumes wirren" perhaps 135-42; and to "Ende vom Lied" a new coda at 85-117. Or so Boetticher, Robert Schumanns Klavierwerke, 1984, 207-11, seems to imply' (p.127, fn.14); ʻIn earlier versions, the endings of "Aufschwung" and "In der Nacht" were less conclusive (a descending bass, rit and dim, under a sustained chord in the treble in the former; pp in the latter)' (p.127, fn.16).

It seems that, uniquely, the penultimate piece, ʻTraumes Wirren', had been composed some years before. McCorkle notes the appearance of its incipit in Schumann's Studienbuch II, marked 'quasi Notturno' and which she dates 2/3/36. The worklist in Grove states that it was composed 'not later than 1832'. Our manuscript of ʻTraumes' certainly has – compared to other pieces, especially 'In der Nacht' – the appearance of a fair copy, albeit one to which Schumann has made certain adjustments while writing it out. It seems pretty clear from its later heading in red crayon, "Alternativ", he was thinking of it in terms of an alternative to the piece that was to be dropped at proof stage, the one marked in our manuscript "XXX".

Makeup of the Schmidt ManuscriptHaving despatched the Stichvorlage on 7 August, Schumann had hoped that the engraver would have publication ready for the end of September. But such was the complexity of this manuscript, with its revisions, transpositions, cross-references etc., that the publishers were forced to have a fair-copy made, and the work did not appear until the first days of February.

Although we have not had opportunity to examine the Stichvorlage, it seems unlikely to be any more complicated than our manuscript. Ours comprises fourteen pages written on either side of seven sheets of music paper, each ruled with five pairs of staves. The first and last leaves are conjoint, and folded into a bifolium. The remaining leaves have been separated into individual sheets which are loose and unbound; and appear to have been used by Schumann in this form. From the deckling of each individual sheet, it is possible to determine recto from verso; and on one sheet where this is less clear, Schumann has helpfully made a note to the pianist (or possibly in this instance engraver): "Wende um!" – 'turn over'.

It is not easy to determine how, exactly, Schumann originally ordered this manuscript; if, that is, he did order it, rather than leaving it in a state of flux that allowed him to shuffle sheets around as he experimented with the sequence of the pieces. The only fixed point is represented by the bifolium, the two sheets that have not been separated. But while this starts with the title-page (so far plain sailing), the reverse of the same leaf bears piece number four ('Grillen'). Similarly, the lower sheet shows no consistency. The last page is occupied by what was to become the penultimate piece, ʻTraumes Wirren', which is then continued on two of the loose inner pages. The last piece of all (and surely, if the title is anything to go by, always intended for this position), ʻEnde vom Lied', occupies the penultimate page; and in adding the coda Schumann is forced to use the only blank space available to him, which is on the title-page. Equally confusing is his progress with the most heavily-worked piece in the collection, 'In der Nacht'. The first draft is written on the rectos of two separate sheets; while the second, which is clearly developed from the first, occupies the recto and verso of a single sheet.

In an attempt to wrestle some order out of chaos, we have assigned to each sheet a letter, running from A to G for the seven sheets. We have assigned the first letter, A, to the upper leaf of the bifolium and the last, G, to the lower one. In describing the manuscript, we use the following sequence: A recto (title and coda of ʻEnde vom Lied'); A verso ('Grillen'); B recto (ʻAufschwung'); B verso ('Warum?'); C recto ('In der Nacht', first draft, beginning); C verso (Appendix ʻXXX'); D recto ('In der Nacht', first draft, continuation); D verso ('Grillen', supplementary passage); E recto ('In der Nacht', second draft, beginning); E verso ('In der Nacht', second draft, continuation); F recto (ʻTraumes Wirren', second sheet); F verso (ʻTraumes Wirren', conclusion); G recto (ʻEnde vom Lied'); G verso (ʻTraumes Wirren', beginning).

The headings of many pieces were originally numbered with Arab numerals, with their Roman equivalent added in red crayon (of which we make note only when an alteration has been effected). In referring to the printed score and to bar numbers, we use the Urtext edition as published by G. Henle Verlag and edited by Ernst Herttrich (2004).

(i) Title-pageOn A recto: Title-page ("Phantasiestücke/ Phantastische Geschichten [deleted/ für Pianoforte/ Miss Rovena [sic] Anna Laidlav [sic]/ zugeeignet/ von/ Robert Schumann// Op. 15 [deleted] 12"), with a draft list of contents in two books underneath, with indications of key and mood. At the foot of the page is his presentation to Schmidt ("Herrn Gustav Schmidt/ zum Andenken von/ Robert Schumann/ Lpz, an/ 7 August 37"). In the left-hand margin, Schumann has drawn up a list of seventeen opus-numbers (discussed below). In the lower two pairs of staves, he has written the final seventeen bars of the Coda to ʻEnde vom Lied', with the note above, underlined in red, that this has been carried over from the end of the last piece ("Schluss des letzen Stücke"), and dating it at the end, Leipzig, 8 July 1837

(ii) ʻAufschwung'On B recto: Headed "II Aufschwung" (originally numbered "3"), comprising drafts corresponding (albeit with many variants and subsequent revisions) to bars, or parts of bars, 1-39 (latterly with only the bass-line written out); with notes by Schumann to himself (or copyist) concerning parts to be inserted (indicated "a-b" and "c-d") and, the need to write the base out without ties, etc

(iii) 'Warum?'On B verso: Headed "III Warum?" (altered from "Frage"), complete, with deletions and revisions, and two bars (27-28) inserted as an afterthought

(iv) 'Grillen'On A verso: Headed "IV Grille" [singular], the upper two pairs of staves marked as insert "A" and ending "B", of which the fourth bar onwards corresponds to bars 47-60 (repeated as bars 143-156 at the end of the piece); the next two staves headed "a" and comprising after a false start bars 37-43, followed by section "b" (one bar) and section "c" corresponding to bars 24-36, concluding with Schumann's note as to how these sections should be written out ("Dann von Amfang aus zu schreiben dann Beilage X") [see D verso]On D verso: Headed "Beilage zu Num. 4" comprising bars 61-97, with revisions; plus instructions at the end as to repeats and transpositions

(v) 'In der Nacht'On C recto: Headed "In der Nacht" (in ink only, without the usual red-crayon numeration); comprising an early – possibly the first – draft corresponding to bars 1-27 (followed by sketches for 28-30), with extensive revisions and deletions (including five bars)On D recto: Comprising further sketches for ʻIn der Nacht', seemingly following on from the first draft at C recto, with the first bar of a false start on the first stave-pairing, the next two pairings with a further twelve bars of sketches, marked below "Aufgang" (i.e. beginning); a further two bars notated on the lowest pairing; together with jottings of pieces with their opus numbers, from no.1 to 16 (post op.12 numbers varying from title-page list), marked off in red crayon; as well as financial calculations evidently relating to costings of publicationOn E recto: Headed "IV In der Nacht", comprising drafts corresponding to bars 1-34, with a false start heavily deleted with cross-hatching, another passage rewritten over scraping-out, elsewhere with revision and deletions; the first two sections marked "A" and "B"On E verso: Without heading, comprising bars 35-44 followed by instructions that section A-B from the previous page [C recto] should be repeated in the engraving, three bars following on from 44 subsequently deleted in red crayon, taking us to bar 62; this repeat followed by drafts for twenty-one further bars (two deleted) corresponding where identified to bars 63-64 and 191-192, the final section of five bars marked for insertion in place of a deleted bar in the staves above; the final two bars on the penultimate pair of staves (prior to insert addition being added below) with scraping-out and rewriting and corresponding to bar 68, which marks the conclusion of the first, Mit Leidenschaft, section; with a reworked list of the order and contents of the two books written in ink below, plus a subsequent draft written in red crayon alongside

(vi) ʻTraumes Wirren'On G verso: Headed "VII ʻTraumes Wirren" (over deleted word), corresponding to bars 1-62, marked at the end in red crayon as coming from the "Alternativ" in D major, marked "Sehr lebhaft und zart"On F recto: Headed in red crayon "Alternativ", with a note alongside that it goes with the piece in F major, corresponding approximately to bars 63-122On F verso: corresponding to the final section from bar 123

(vii) ʻEnde vom Lied'On G recto: Headed "VIII Ende vom Lied", comprising bars 1-94 plus others; marked as continuing on title (see following)On A recto (title-page): In the lower two pairs of staves, he has written the final seventeen bars of the Coda to ʻEnde vom Lied', with the note above, underlined in red, that this has been carried over from the end of the last piece ("Schluss des letzen Stücke"), and dating it at the end, Leipzig, 8 July 1837. This version of the Coda is markedly different from that finally published

(viii) Appendix ʻXXX'On C verso: Headed (in red crayon) "V. XXX"; comprising the omitted piece, corresponding to the complete bars 1-49, with revisions, with a section marked off (a-b) for repeat an octave lower apart from the final bar

(ix) Order of Pieces within the CycleAt various points within the manuscript Schumann has made notes of the order in which the nine pieces (including the Appendix ʻXXX') should be placed in the two books making up the Fantasiestücke:On A recto (title-page): revised draft of the contents of the two books, intended to be printed beneath the dedication, beginning with "Die Abende" [original title of 'Des Abends'], marked with key signatures and mood indications (such as "Schwere" against "Frage" [later ʻWarum?'], the piece itself headed "Langsam und recht zart" in our MS, and "Mit gutem Humor" against the last, as in our MS and the first edition)On E verso: Two lists placing the pieces in order in their two books, the first (written in ink at the lower right-hand side) beginning with ʻDes Abends' followed by ʻFabel'; the second, added later alongside, in red crayon, also different from the published order (ʻWarum', for example, placed as the penultimate piece)

(x) Opus Numbers and PublicationOn A recto (title-page): List in the left-hand margin (having on the title substituted "Op.12." for "Op.15.") of opus numbers against abbreviated titles, running from 1 to 17, beginning "1. A" (for Opus 1 Abegg Variations); in which Opus 12 is designated as "Ph." (i.e. the Fantasiestücke) with twin marker lines drawn under Opus 14; the works thereafter not corresponding to the opus numbers that were eventually assigned to themOn D recto: List of works and their numbers, from Opus 7 to 16, some ticked off in red crayon (and again, the later numbers, differing from those eventually assigned); also notes of costings in thalers, etc

Robena Ann Laidlaw and Clara WieckComposition of the Phantasiestücke Op.12 marks a turning point in Schumann's emotional as well as musical life. It was dedicated to, and to a degree inspired by, the pianist Robena Ann Laidlaw. As Draheim observes, 'Schumann picked his dedicatees carefully: the personality of the dedicatee, particularly if a musician, often gives interesting insight into the character of the work and the manner in which the composer intended it to be played'. In the dedication Schumann renders her name as 'Miss Anna Robena Laidlav'. (The phonetic spelling of her surname is followed in our manuscript as well as the first edition and, for good measure, several notices of her in his periodical Die Neue Zeitschrift für Musik.) He reversed her two first names on the grounds that this rendered them more poetic, and this is how she is usually now referred to (including in the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography). In our manuscript, however, the original order of her name is given (unlike in the Stichvorlage that followed immediately after). Indeed, had Schumann – or someone – not tampered with her second name, Ann (taken from her mother), no reordering for the sake of scansion might have been deemed necessary.

It is often stated that Schumann first encountered her when she gave a recital at the Gewandhaus on 2 July 1837, which he reviewed on the 11th, declaring that 'This artiste, in whose culture are united English solidity and natural amiability, will remain a treasured memory to all who have made her closer acquaintance' (Neue Zeitschrift für Musik, 11 July 1837). But in fact they had already met before the concert, as is evidenced by the visitors book at the Schloss Lützschena, Leipzig, in which she has signed herself 'Robena Ann Laidlaw'; her signature being accompanied by those of her mother and Schumann himself, who has dated the entry 28 June (Cockman, p.16). As Daverio observes, 'While we cannot be certain that Schumann and the "good Laidlaw" had an affair (his diary speaks of a "rapid agreement" and "parting with sadness"), one fact is certain: like several young women before her... she inspired Schumann to compose. After four months of little or no compositional activity, he drafted the "blissful" Phantasiestücke in July' (Schumann, p.156). On 19 August, after she had left Leipzig, he wrote: ʻI will forever have very fond memories of your stay here; the message I am now writing is expressed more clearly in eight fantasy pieces for pianoforte that will soon be published and have your name on the frontispiece. Although I have not specially requested permission to dedicate the work, the pieces are yours – the whole of the Rosenthal Woods, with their romantic associations, is present in the music' (Draheim).

More significant still was a recital that Clara gave at the Gewandhaus on 13 August, to which, through a friend, she invited Schumann, from whom on her father's orders she had been long separated: 'At about the time he finished the Phantasiestücke, Schumann noticed a striking alteration in his psychological makeup: "From here on," he wrote in his diary, "a change in my essential nature and genuine desire for a wife" (Daverio, Schumann p.137). After the concert he sent a letter of proposal which she accepted the following day, 14 August; a day which both of them celebrated thereafter as marking their engagement. This is only a week after he presented our manuscript to Gustav Schmidt. Even though, as his letters and the retained dedication show, Schumann held Robena Laidlaw in fond memory, the Fantasiestücke, even if retrospectively, came to belong to Clara, as his linking of the story of Hero and Leander to 'In der Nacht' shows. Speaking of the last piece, ʻEnde vom Lied', he wrote to her on 13 March 1838: 'I thought that, now I had reached the end everything would resolve itself in a merry wedding. But as I thought of you, sorrow came over me, and the result was a chime of wedding bells mingled with a death knell'; as Hinson observes: 'Like its joyous march that suddenly melts into a pianissimo coda, ʻEnde vom Lied' could be an image of Schumann's whole life' (p.4).

ProvenanceThe recipient of our manuscript, Gustav Schmidt (1816-1882), was six years younger than Schumann. He was at around this time studying in Leipzig as a pupil of Schumann's friend Mendelssohn, and was to go on to an enjoy a successful career as a conductor, championing among others the works of Wagner and Berlioz. He also composed several operas, one of which, Die Weiber von Weinsberg, was conducted by Liszt at Weimar, as well as a number of popular songs (see John Warrack's entry in Grove).

The manuscript was acquired by the Jewish jurist Dr Moritz Sprinz (1885-1974) prior to his last-minute flight from Nazi Germany in February 1939. He was married to Dr Caroline (Carrie) Elisabeth Amalie Maude Plaut (1892-1972), who came from a distinguished Leipzig medical family and was herself a physician; her father being the bacteriologist Hugo Carl Plaut (1858-1928), discoverer of the Plaut-Vincent angina and pioneer in the field of vaccination; her grandfather being the banker and railway promoter, Gustav Plaut (1824-1908). Carrie's sister, Dr Rahel Plaut (1894-1993), was a leading physiologist and was the first woman to be appointed to a senior post at the Hamburg University School of Medicine. Rahel had her teaching license revoked in 1933 when Jews were purged from the civil services, and in December 1938 fled to Hull, where her brother Theo was already living. There she was joined by her sister Carrie and Moritz (with our manuscript) in February 1939; Rahel's husband, the mediaeval historian Hans Liebeschuetz, joining them after his release from Sachsenhausen Concentration Camp in March.

Moritz Sprinz is among those listed in the plaque erected at the Berlin headquarters of the Deutscher Richterbund (German Judicial Association) to commemorate the Jewish judges and prosecutors removed from office by the Nazis. The manuscript then passed to his younger son Rudolph Sprinz FDS (1923-2016). Rudolph served in the Royal Army Dental Corps (gazetted lieutenant 17 February 1947) and was elected Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons, Edinburgh (without examination) in 1968. Both Moritz and Rudolph are listed as donors to the 'Thank-You Britain' Fund set up after the War (AJR newsletter for the Association of Jewish Refugees in Great Britain, xx, no.3, March 1965). The present owner was given the manuscript in 1992.

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